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Eczema Eczema Treatment

Treatments for Eczema: What's Right for You?

Summary & Participants

There are a variety of different treatments that can help control eczema. The therapies can come as creams, ointments or even as pills. However, not all therapies are right for all patients. The age of the patient, the area of the body that is affected, the length of treatment necessary, and the lifestyle and needs of a patient will influence treatment decisions. Learn how to make the decisions about what treatment is right for you.

Medically Reviewed On: June 10, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Eczema is a chronic skin condition which can mean itchy, dry skin. It can erupt into lesions or, over time, thicken into scales. The condition affects both children and adults. Treatment often depends on the age of the person and where the eczema is located.

SHEILA FRIEDLANDER, MD: Children, very little babies tend to have involvement in the cheeks and involvements in the surface of the arms, the surface of the legs.

As people become older, the disease tends to localize in new sites. Often the creases, in the creases both behind the knees and behind the elbows are very common sites of involvement.

ANNOUNCER: Of course everyone wants to avoid an outbreak.

A. PAUL KELLY, MD: The first line of defense usually is something to keep the skin from being this dry. So we use lubricating creams or ointments. In the wintertime, when it's cold, you use an ointment to lubricate the skin. In the summertime, you might want to use a cream or a lotion, so you don't plug the pores.

ANNOUNCER: Until recently, the most frequently used therapy for flare-ups was steroid creams or ointments.

A. PAUL KELLY, MD: If the person is flaring and they have lesions, then what we like to do is use topical steroids, that's usually our next choice. And you have many classes, class basically 1 through 6, with 1 being the most potent.

ANNOUNCER: While effective there's concern about long-term usage of steroidal treatments.

SHEILA FRIEDLANDER, MD: We know that if they're used for prolonged periods, particularly if there are high-potency steroids used in a large surface area for long periods, that the patients can suffer from a number of things. One is thinning of the skin, atrophy of the skin or the development of large blood vessels over that area.

ANNOUNCER: When given orally or by injection, steroidal treatments are also problematic.

A. PAUL KELLY, MD: Systemic steroids are appropriate when the topical steroids fail. You don't want to use them for a long period of time because they can cause shut down of the adrenal gland or a decreased function of the adrenal gland. So we try not to use them for long periods of time.

ANNOUNCER: That's why the development of new non-steroidal treatments has been very welcome. They appear free of lasting side effects.

A. PAUL KELLY, MD: There's a new group of medications out; the one's tacrolimus and one's pimecrolimus, Protopic and Elidel. And they have been found to work very well in patients who have eczema. The Protopic is an ointment, two different strengths, and the Elidel is a cream. It's not topical steroids where you have to be careful of atrophy and so forth. You can use them basically for years without the problem.

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